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Browsing by tag: osmotheque

Reduced to tears by Caron’s 1919 Tabac Blond

Posted by Robin on 3 November 2026 Leave a Comment

But the archive also is open to the public on request. “It’s always to look for a positive memory: childhood, a grandmother, a mother, a first love,” said Ms. Pouant, who recalled a woman reduced to tears by Caron’s 1919 Tabac Blonde [sic], the perfume used by one of her grandmothers.

— The New York Times on the Osmothèque. Read more in In France, a Treasure Trove of Fragrance.

In March 2025, a tiger followed a forest trail through Nepal’s Khata Corridor until it reached a small iron stake next to the path. Attached to it was a dispenser releasing a laboratory-made version of a chemical found in the scent markings big cats use to mark their territory and communicate with other cats.

A camera trap recorded the Bengal tiger (Panthera tigris tigris) approaching the station. The curious cat investigated the smell and then stopped, one of multiple instances of tigers and leopards coming up to these scent stations and then turning back the way they came.

— Read more in After Botswana, Nepal tries artificial scent marking to fend big cats off villages at Mongabay.

Fragrance net sales increased 20% in the company's fiscal first quarter, Estée Lauder reported on Monday. It was one of the fastest-growing divisions for the company in the quarter. Gains were fueled by double-digit growth in high-end brands Le Labo, Tom Ford, Jo Malone London, and Kilian Paris. Estée Lauder also notched growth.

— Read more in Estée Lauder CEO on surging fragrance sales: 'Consumers are getting younger' at Yahoo!Finance.

The Soul of French Perfume

Posted by Robin on 15 October 2026 Leave a Comment

The art of perfumery is ancient, intricate, and shrouded in mystery. The Osmothèque in Versailles, in partnership with the espace Richaud, lifts the veil on some of the secrets of this millennia-old craft, in which France has distinguished itself in particular. From November 4, 2026 to February 7, 2027, discover the exhibition The Soul of French Perfume: A Journey to the Heart of Elegance and Craft.

This historical exhibition takes visitors back 2,000 years, exploring the rituals and beliefs surrounding perfumes in antiquity. Offerings to the gods, medicinal virtues, fragrances for the wealthy and powerful: perfume fulfilled multiple roles. Over the centuries, the place and functions of perfumes have evolved.

— Read more in The Soul of French Perfume: An Elegant Exhibition at Espace Richaud in Versailles at Sortir à Paris.

My job is to create something beautiful

Posted by Robin on 24 July 2025 Leave a Comment

My job is to create something beautiful. I have to build something like a musician or a painter, create something in accordance with the quality of the haute couture of Patou.

— Perfumer Jean Kerléo, quoted in 1986. Read more in Jean Kerléo, Former Jean Patou Perfumer and Osmothèque Cofounder, Dies at 93 at Women's Wear Daily via MSN.

Hard to come by

Posted by Robin on 13 April 2020 Leave a Comment

Some of the 27 ingredients Pliny described were hard to come by nearly 2,000 years later, and getting the proportions right was a challenge too – since in Pliny’s time raw materials weren’t distilled or synthesised, but crushed and burned. It took all [perfumer Jean] Kerléo’s skill, and a year of his life, to achieve a harmonious balance. But achieve it he did, and the hedonistic parlours of ancient Rome sprang to life in a haze of cinnamon, honey and wine.

— Read more in Is There Such A Formula As The Perfume Of God? And Other Fragrance Dreams From A Perfume Conservatory In Versailles (that would be the Osmothèque perfume museum) at Vogue UK.

Rare Perfumes ~ perfume book review

Posted by Robin on 20 February 2014 8 Comments

Rare Perfumes, book cover

Rare Perfumes (the French version is called Parfums Rares) is a celebration of niche perfumery, in a coffee table format with large illustrations and plenty of white space (see images below). It was commissioned by the Osmothèque, the museum and scent archive in Versailles, and sponsored by The Fragrance Foundation France, InterParfums, Robert Piguet and Parfums de Nicolaï, among others. It was written by two fragrance journalists, Sabine Chabbert and Laurence Férat, and features a preface by Patricia de Nicolaï.

If you’re looking for a critical, in-depth analysis of how niche perfumes fit into — or don’t fit into — the larger fragrance market, or how niche influences mainstream or vice versa, look elsewhere (and tell me where you find it). This is not that, nor is it a niche version of something like Michael Edwards’ Perfume Legends: French feminine fragrances, with its focus on perfume development and the interplay between brands, perfumers, marketers and designers. Other than in passing, you will learn relatively little about individual fragrances or how they differ from from their mainstream counterparts…

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